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Pastebin on the mend after DDoS battering

Were hacktivists the real target?

Popular text file sharing service Pastebin.com has returned online following a denial of service attack on Tuesday.

The site, which allows users to anonymously upload (potentially large) documents and share them, has become a favourite resource for hacktivists from Anonymous and elsewhere over recent months. Anonymous uses Pastebin to upload data dumps and to post announcements of planned operations. The site also serves at an internet clipboard for programmers and many other users.

However a quick perusal of the trending pastes on Pastebin suggests the majority of the most widely read posts relate to Anonymous, hacktivism or the Occupy movement.

Pastebin confirmed the attack on Tuesday, via its official Twitter account, but without providing any clues about possible suspects or motives.

"Slowly getting things back under control," it said. "Sorry for the downtime & slow loading site guys, we are doing our best to stop this attack."

This tweet followed one hour after an earlier update confirming an attack. ®